“If our legal counsel, Bob Rutherford, works for Satan, Satan should buy Bob a better toupee.”

“Pray as if all things depend on God, and work as if all things depend on you.”

“Fate Marches on, demanding we find our destinies”

“Everyone thinks you're so strong and self-confident, but inside you're a frightened child, waiting to suffer betrayal again from those who should love you most.”

“Don’t you have any respect for your betters?”“I do. That’s why I’m going to help her up the stairs and put her to bed with a cup of hot tea. You can just sit here and . . . jangle your manacle!”

“And you’re prickly enough about being young.”She was amusing him. “More than ever, I feel as if I’ve robbed the cradle.”But she knew how to puncture his mirth. “You are very old,” she agreed demurely.He pushed her backward onto the grass.She laughed and fought him. Within minutes he had her arms trapped over her head, and he kissed her while the world whirled around them. “I win!” he said against her lips.“Only because you used brute force.”“It’s better than drugs in a glass of wine,” he retorted.“You would think so, since you hold the brute force.”He grinned down at her. “But I did win.”“Yes, yes, you won.” She dismissed his boasting as if it were of no consequence. “Are you ever going to forget that stupid manacle?”“No, I think I’ll be bringing it up at inconvenient moments for the rest of our lives.”At his ill-thought-out words, they both froze, their eyes wide with shock. The rest of their lives?Their gazes shifted away from each other.”

“I think that’s Miss Victorine now with your breakfast. Are you hungry?”“Do you expect me to sit here like a bloody fool and eat a meal?”“You’ll always be a bloody fool, there’s nothing to be done about that, and I don’t care if you starve to death.” Moving to the bottom of the stairway, she took the tray from Miss Victorine’s hand. “But right now you have to maintain a modicum of health or we won’t get our money.”